Nexus - 0904 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

NEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCE and created what is now known as "tobacco science". When the ACA pamphlet refers to "The weight of national and international scien- tific opinion", it is basically referring to the opinion of and radiofrequency exposure guidelines set by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). What is not said, however, is that the ICNIRP guidelines are only based on high- level, short-term animal exposure studies, conducted to determine exposure limits set to avoid immediate hazards to health (such as heating of body tissue, called a "thermal effect") from high-level exposures. Most importantly, ICNIRP does not examine the possibility of other non- thermal health effects arising from long- term, low-level radiofrequency/microwave exposure, such as from using a mobile phone for years. As such, it is scientifically irrelevant to the issue. From a PR viewpoint, however, statements like "The weight of national and international scientific opinion" do sound impressive. In 1995, Dr Ross Adey, one of the world's most respected and senior research scientists, in an email reply to this author commented on "The weight of national and international scientific opinion" by stating: "The laboratory evidence for non- thermal effects of both ELF [power frequency] and RF/microwave fields now constitutes a major body of scientific literature in peer-reviewed journals. It is my personal view that to continue to ignore this work in the course of standard-setting is irresponsible to the point of being a public scandal." (D. Maisch, "Mobile Phones and their Transmitter Base Stations: the evidence for health hazards" [Senate submission], EMFacts Consultancy, April 1996, page 5) The outcome of this conflict may not be known for many years, until today's young mobile phone users are well into their adulthood. By then, if the warnings of health hazards prove to be true, irreversible damage to the health and wellbeing of many of these people will have been done. For every parent who is tempted to allow unrestricted mobile phone use by their chil- dren, they need to ask themselves: is it worth the risk? 20 About the Author: Don Maisch is director of EMFacts Consultancy and has produced 24 pub- lications and papers on a variety of health issues related to EM radiation exposure. See NEXUS 7/03 and 2/26 for his articles on RF/MW and EMR expo- sure standards. Don can be contacted at: EMFacts Consultancy, PO Box 96, North Hobart, Tasmania, 7002, Australia; telephone +61 (0)3 6243 0195, fax +61 (0)3 6243 0340, email emfacts@trump.net.au, website http://www.tassie.net.au/ emfacts/. A precautionary approach So what we have is an ideological battle between a few voices of reason calling for a precautionary approach to safeguard our children's health, based on sound science, versus the might of the mobile phone industry and their supporters, based on maximising corporate profits. ued fi ge 46 Gold was also critical of the peer review process that rose to 5 . . 5 _ ascendancy in the latter half of the 20th century. Richard Dawkins could just have easily been a cardinal in the Journalist Richard Milton, in his rebuttal letter to Auriol pre-Enlightenment. Church, and Milton a heretic. There is that stevens (the London Times Higher Education Supplement editor lingering smell of dogma and belief in the air that permeates who had spiked his anti-Darwin article), wrote: much of the cant of the 21st century scientific priesthood: the 7 pelieve that the great strength of science and the scientific moves to censor "unacceptable" doctrines or teachings smack of — merhod is its openness to debate... Science does not need vigi- traditional Church-style politics. i lante scientists to guard the gates against heretics... If this Unfortunately, the so-called watchdog, the mass media, is a article were about any other subject—finance, politics, the lapdog in the case of science. Most reporters seem too overawed —— gconomy—I know that it would be welcome as well-written by the institution and its more famous players ever to ask any and thought-provoking, even if its claims were controversial. hard questions or conduct any serious investigative reporting. , No documentary exposing the weaknesses of the theory of evo- But it was not about other subjects; it concerned the "sacred lution has ever been aired on British television. Doesn't that seem — Gow" of Darwinism. Milton may have been naive at that point, a bit odd? . . . . . but his "education" was just starting. There are many other For anyone truly serious about what is going on with science, "taboo" subjects that would not have been published. Arp's essay is must-reading. His underlying contention is that sci- The point of this series has not been to tar all scientists with the ence today 1S "impossibly authoritarian”. . . same brush. There are unquestionably many good, honest, hard- Tn an interview with Thomas Gold, published in the working scientists who are appalled by some of the unsavoury Washington Post in November 1999, the reporter noted: things going on in the name of science. But so many scientists Eight years ago, when Gold was developing his theory, some seem to delight in attacking alternative science theory and its geologists were so incensed that they petitioned to have the practitioners by branding the proceedings "pseudoscience", as if government remove all mention of it from the nation's they were White Knights on a Divine Mission to preserve the libraries. integrity of science. What integrity? It is time they dropped all . . . -o. . their debunking and cleaned up the institution before we get the And in our virginal naivety, we thought scientists were against — ¢cientific version of the Inquisition. oo book-burning and were champions of free, independent thought and expression... About the Author: The article continued by pointing out that Gold took it in his Will Hart is a freelance journalist, book author, nature photogra- stride: pher and documentary filmmaker. He lives and does much of his ..the scientific world allegedly searching for truth is little research in the Lake Tahoe area in the USA, and writes a column more hospitable to it than when Galileo ran afoul of the _ titled "The Tahoe Naturalist" for a regional publication. He has pro- Inquisition, he says. duced and directed films about wolves and wild horses. 52 ¢ NEXUS JUNE - JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com